Also for the benefit of brokers, “we do a
lot of cobranding and pitching,” says

Waters. “We provide them with the materi-als they need to help secure a listing. We’llhelp them develop a strategy using ourplatform that allows them to differentiateand secure listings.”Barry Swatsenbarg, SVP of investmentsales with Colliers International in Detroit,will attest to the Ten-X platform’s efficacy infacilitating his job. Beginning with the post-downturn period of employing Live Bid tosell properties on behalf of lenders andspecial servicers, and more recently with hisadoption of the Offer Select solution,Swatsenbarg has had seven years of experi-ence as a user.

“Ten-X and the services it provides rep-resent another arrow in my quiver, orarsenal of opportunities that I can expressto a client to match with their objectives,”he says. “When clients want to incorporateTen-X with the services we offer, the driv-ers are speed of the transaction, exposureand transparency, the latter of which hasobviously been a major factor in how tech-nology has changed real estate. A compet-ing broker may tell a client that they knowall of the potential buyers for a specificproperty. That’s absurd. Nobody can pre-tend to know everybody.”Although Swatsenbarg and his competi-tors “may all know the same 6,000 to 8,000parties, we try to find what we refer to as‘unique equity.’ Ten-X and Offer Select isa mechanism that drives the uniqueequity—that is, the specific buyer that hasa need, a timing constraint or an interestin the product type, and that we normallywould not find through typical avenues ofour marketing. When you have that kindof success and track record, then otherclients want to look for the same kind ofexposure to achieve their goals.”Similarly, Chuck Pomerantz, managingdirector at Garrison Investment Group,attests to the Ten-X platform’s effective-ness from the vantage point of a seller.“They attract a different kind of buyer,”one that would not have been as readilyapparent through conventional channels,he says. Neither the makeup of the indi-vidual buyer nor the size of the buyerpool would have otherwise factored intothe equation.

Pomerantz was introduced to the platform about four years ago through
Garrison’s disposition of unwanted assets
gained through a foreclosure. He has since
sold about half a dozen hotels through
Ten-X in the past two and a half years.

For Jason Berg, CFO for AMERCO/U-Haul, “Our marketplace is pretty much
every community in the United States. In
any place with a five-mile demographic ring

of at least 20,000 people, I’d like to own apiece of property and operate a U-Haulcenter.” The key attraction of Ten-X is thatit’s nationwide, “and it gives us visibility todeals that we may not otherwise see.”Although U-Haul has local teams thatkeep their eyes open for potential proper-ties, “they’re not real estate professionals,”says Berg. “So we don’t get to see every dealthat’s out there.” The company is in the mar-ket for everything from existing self-storagefacilities—a first choice—and vacant land tooffice or industrial properties that can berepurposed, and has bid on all of these typesthrough the Ten-X platform.

Berg also gives high marks to the duediligence process. “It allows me to proce-duralize the entire real estate evaluationprocess; they’ve almost created it as a com-modity,” he says. “The due diligence is thesame from deal to deal, so my environ-mental team can pull up the data andreview everything it needs to do in PhaseOne, and check that box. My zoning teamcan go in, get the information it needs,contact the city and check that box, and soon.”At present, Ten-X has further enhance-ments to its platform in testing mode andexpects to roll those out by the end of 2017.Longer term, “the major game-changer forthe industry will be around big data,” saysWaters. Just as Amazon anticipates otherproducts that users might be interested inbased on their recent shopping histories.“The key for us will be understanding thebehaviors of our customers and using bigdata” to meet their needs.

“The other big advantage for brokers isthat 72% of our buyers are unknown tomost listing brokers,” she continues. “Byunderstanding and being able to reach alarger pool of people that you would beable to as a local broker, we provide awhole different spectrum of potential buy-ers. It’s big data that allows us to under-stand much more broadly the universe ofpeople that would be engaged in buyingand selling real estate. The Amazons ofthe world have been at it for much longer,but that’s where we’re headed.”Waters sees gradual adoption of bigdata. “There will be a big push, followed bya lull and then full adoption,” she says.Though CRE has been - slower than mostother major industries in terms of technol-ogy adoption in this area, “I think big datawill be easier to adopt.”More generally, Jacobs sees the industryembracing technology as the next frontier.“The business has worked this way for sometime and people have been very successful,’he says. “But there has been recognitionthat, for good or bad, many people are liv-ing a significant portion of their lives ontheir phones. So it just makes sense forcommercial real estate to move online.”

The industry has grown accustomed to
faxing bids, or sending them as PDFs, then
discussing each one in a conference room
or over the phone. That process will ultimately move online, via chat or text, says
Jacobs. “That’s going to become the next
forefront for CRE—recognizing that this is
an online world. It’s going to take several
years, but it’s starting with us.” ◆

Our three primarycustomers are theseller, buyer and broker, butthe broker is really runningthe process. We provide thetools to help them drive thattransaction faster.”